How to Write an Article That Will Get Published by Top Academic Journals
Most researchers, regardless the sphere they work in, dream of being published in famous academic journals. The following tips may help in attaining this goal.
1. Interesting topic
First of all, choose a topic that will be interesting for you. Interesting means that you will want to explore it thoroughly. You will be ready to spend your time and resources to conduct the research, to examine each detail without expecting a reward. What is interesting for you, will likely be interesting for your readers.
2. Novelty
You should propose something new that will contribute to the existing body of knowledge. Rewriting or rephrasing the already existing information is boring. Ask yourself what new will your results give to the world or at least to those engaged in the sphere of your interest. If nothing new is contributed, the value of your article will be low and unworthy of reading.
3. Solve a problem
Not only the topic should be interesting and new but also explore a significant research problem. Your article should either propose a solution for a practical problem which has been relevant for a long time or add something substantial to the theoretical knowledge. This will ensure interest of the academic audience to your work.
4. Determine the audience of your work
Your article may be interesting but those potentially interested in its results might merely be unaware of your work. Therefore, when writing an article, you should clearly understand how you will reach your audience and in what journal(s) it is going to be published.
5. Structure
Get acquainted with the requirements for the design and structure of articles in the chosen journal. The logics of narration are quite common for all articles. Basically, an article should include an introduction where a background and a context are outlined and aims of the research are formulated. This allows readers to see the scope of the research and understand what to expect from reading the article. Next, it is feasible to show what has already been reported on the topic in the literature in order not to reinvent the wheel and not to report what has already been reported.
After that, you should clearly show how you attain your research aims and what step you do to get the results. Next, you present your results and discuss them in the light of the previous findings and the objectives you formulated in the introduction. Conclusion summarises the results and shows directions how your research can be continued or improved.
6. Complete the research
If you see that something else can be done in the research, it is feasible to do it and include the results in the article. The queue for publications in good journals can reach several months, so if you want to write another article you may need to wait for a long time and your results may get outdated.
7. Procedures
Follow all the submission procedures you find in the requirements. It will be doubly insulting if you write an excellent article, that is rejected on formal grounds. To avoid this situation, be punctual and precise.
8. Revision and polishing of the article
When working on amendments and correcting your article, do not hesitate to ask for help of your colleagues. Feedback will be very useful as you may see you work one-sidedly whereas others will give another perspective. Also, ask editors what can be done better and do the amends. They edit dozens and hundreds of similar articles and may give you a good advice so that you can improve your work.